With the rate at which modern towns and cities expand it’s inevitable that the volume of separation between agricultural facilities and highly populated areas is shrinking. The loss of these areas can have a lasting impact, particularly when it comes to our water supplies. From an ...

The source area of the Liao River is an important grain growing area in China which experiences serious problems with agricultural nonpoint source pollution (NPS) which is impacting the regional economy and society. In order to address the water quality issues it is necessary to understand the spatial distribution of NPS in the Liao River source area. This issue has been investigated by ...

Rapid socio-economic development in suburban areas of developing countries has induced changes in agricultural waste and nutrient management, resulting in water pollution. The study aimed at estimating agricultural nutrient cycles and their contribution to the water environment. A material flow model of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) was developed focusing on agricultural activities from 1980 ...

Rapid socio-economic development in suburban areas of developing countries has induced changes in agricultural waste and nutrient management, resulting in water pollution. The study aimed at estimating agricultural nutrient cycles and their contribution to the water environment. A material flow model of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) was developed focusing on agricultural activities from 1980 ...

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization has designated 2015 the International Year of Soils, and with good reason. As this infographic shows, a whopping 95 percent of our food comes from soil — and if sustainably managed, could produce 58 percent more food globally. There’s cause for concern, though. FAO concludes 33 percent of our ...

Precision agriculture has been a key enabling technology to achieve higher yields with lower cost and less environmental impact, while keeping the cost of food fairly stable Has global agricultural productivity increased or decreased in the last 25 years? It has, in fact, more than doubled since 1985. Next to advances in seed genetics, precision agriculture has been a key enabling ...

The US is celebrating bumper crops this year, according to Farming UK. The publication states that the record-breaking corn harvest this year surpassed expectations of the US Department of Agriculture and it seems that because of the warm summer this year, that the UK could be following in its footsteps. Farming UK also reports on a trial that examines the good health ...

Rice residues are important natural resources, the management of these residues is a major challenge for environment protection. The use of different techniques to produce silica with minimal mineral contaminants having high Specific Surface Area (SSA) has been investigated. The different methods used depended on treatment of rice hulls with different dilute organic acids and hydrochloric acid, ...

Agronomic and water quality considerations Water use for agricultural irrigation is the largest component of water use in most countries and is more than 70% of human water use in drier countries. Use of recycled water for irrigation requires consideration of soil types, groundwater levels, soil and water chemistry, nutrient loads, limits on chemicals, the salt tolerance of ...

In this paper, we present a novel approach for determining the probable co‐occurrence of juvenile salmon or steelhead with agricultural pesticides and apply it to spring Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) salmon in the Willamette Basin, Oregon. We adapted a published exposure analysis framework by explicitly considering fish migration among habitat units and assuming that habitat use is ...

Efforts to control eutrophication of water resources in agriculturally dominated ecosystems have focused on managing on-farm activities to reduce nutrient loss; however, another management measure for improving water quality is adoption of environmental performance criteria (or ‘outcome-based standards’). Here, we review approaches for setting environmental quality criteria for nutrients, ...

This study investigates how gender affects sustainable livelihoods in terms of the impact on food and nutrition security in farm worker households. Gender variables play a crucial role in the well-being of households, especially for women and children. A case study of South African farms shows that female-headed households, although having less access to earned income, take better care of the ...

A website called “BuildingSoil” has been launched by the Washington Organic Recycling Council to help builders preserve healthy soil on building sites. It's the latest Soils for Salmon project which aims to change standard site development practices. These new “soil best management practices” will soon be required by local governments around western Washington, as they update local codes to ...

The advantages and disadvantages of culturing fish. Experts develop practical recommendations for decision-makers, scientists and producers for a sustainable development of Mediterranean aquaculture. Human demand for fish is growing steadily. With fisheries decreasing worldwide, aquaculture is becoming an important socio-economic alternative and a source of proteins and healthy oils. ...

Year to year variation in yield is an inherent risk associated with crop production and many growers rely on intensive mechanical or chemical inputs to preserve crop yield in the face of fluctuating environmental conditions. However, as interest grows in alternative crop management systems which depend less on external inputs, determining the degree to which management systems can impact the ...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are ubiquitous in our environment because of their many uses and origins in residential, industrial, livestock, and agricultural applications. EDCs are derived from both anthropogenic and natural sources, and change the function of the endocrine system, affecting the way an organism or its progeny ...

The interest and growth in microfinance have burgeoned during the last two decades with the involvement of both private and public sector agencies. As a result of the interest in this sector, microfinance services have grown rapidly. However, little attention has been given to the environmental impacts of microcredit, or ways to mitigate those impacts. This is of particular concern in a rural ...

CIALs (Committees For Local Agricultural Research) are community level organisations for helping agricultural scientists and farmers to collaborate on adaptive research. Although CIALs have been used mainly for testing new crops and varieties, an unorthodox project in Peru and Bolivia recently used CIALs with a range of research techniques: formal trials, participatory research and farmers' own ...